Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 9.djvu/284

272 H. M. STANLEY : cohesion into a whole capable of motion, and having definite form and size, we may distinguish molar, molecular, and atomic stages in the history of matter. The moon, without atmosphere and water, seems to be wholly molar, while the earth is mostly molar though still in the molecular stage as regards air and the partially molar water. The sun is probably mostly molecular and atomic, while a nebula may be wholly atomic. With the diffusion of the high nebular energy, atoms are aggregated into molecules, and molecules into masses. The non-orbital mass is really sub-mass ; and the first non- orbital masses upon the earth were igneous rocks. These sub-masses were reduced to a long series of sub-masses, whence, according to the evolution-hypothesis, arises the living man. This is, as Prof. Du Bois Eeymond says, a mass noted for its unstable equilibrium, a stream of matter constantly flowing through it, and its life consisting in intercommunication. The living sub-masses are known in simplest form as cells or, we would suggest as a more appropriate name, biocules. The science of the cell and cell- aggregates plants and animals is Biology. Here there seems to be a break with reference to the principle of aggregation of units, for the cell is not an aggregate of masses into a higher unit, as the mass is a higher unit than the mole- cule ; but the advance to a higher form of matter may be regarded as due to a new combination of forces. Within the domain of life we find aggregates and aggregates of aggregates, both in the indi- vidual and in the collective body of individuals in the individual known as organs and tissues, in the collective mass known as classes, orders, families, &c. One animal, man, is distinguished from others by the pos- session of a unique power over nature arising from a unique intelligence. Man certainly forms a more distinct and marked stage of creation than any which has preceded in that he surveys the whole, but he is, besides an animal, a man, an aggregation of molecules and atoms. Man, although he is a complex of aggre- gates of aggregates, does not seem to be man by virtue of this law of aggregates, for in this he does not seem to differ radically from other animals. He is the animal in which psychical force, in distinction from physical force, comes to be a grand and dominant factor; hence the peculiar science of individual man is Psychology, while the study of the structure, functions, and growth of man's body is properly referred to Biology. Sociology deals with the very difficult and complex subject of aggregates of human individuals. Human society is composed of societies, states, religious bodies, and the like ; and these again of subordinate organisations, and so on down to the individual unit. This complexity is increased by the individual becoming a member of different societies. In all this w r heel within wheel of societies the individual is the constant unit to which reference must be made, just as, in the investigation of molecules, reference